My heart goes out to those rabid Buffalo Sabres fans whose hearts have been broken yet again - the President's Trophy was a nice prize, but all of you expected another couple weeks of hockey. Now, I'm sure many Sabres fans are going through a range of emotions in reaction to Daniel Alfredsson's OT winner that lifted the Senators into their first modern Stanley Cup Final, but before you take that ultimate step, please watch this:
Why is it that various media outlets continue trying to put their own spin on the "what's wrong with the NHL" story? Our latest example comes from The Hockey News , in a piece by Jay Greenburg entitled, "Excitement Level On The Decline." Take the opening sentence: Attendance is down and yet still up from before the lockout, leaving it arguable whether buildings in New Jersey and Florida are half-full or half empty. It's no surprise that attendance is down from last season, particularly if you compare the first half of 2005-06 to the first half of this year. Coming out of the lockout, there were legions of fans starved to see the on-ice product, particularly in light of the massive rule changes. This year is more indicative of business as usual, so the fact that the league is above pre-lockout levels is a positive. Toss in the projection that overall revenues are increasing despite a 1% decrease in attendance, and I'd say that paying fans have come back ...